Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Technology & Tenure
The article by Kevin Carey from the Chronicle of Higher Ed examines sensitive issues on the role of tenure and technology in academic institutions. I disagree with the the author that tenure limits a social voice or community to speak out on issues because of obligation to an institution. If anything, tenure allows education researchers and faculty members to balance grant and fundraising along with theory building and course instruction. Tenure is necessary so that researchers pursue the latest technology tools required to meet the demands of students in the 21st century. However, academic institutions may want to adopt policies incentivizing faculty to improve instructor evaluations and develop innovative course plans to facilitate instruction. Abolishing tenure threatens to reduce the amount of progressive scholars looking to engage students with immersive technology and web 2.0 applications that permeate mainstream culture. Granting more influence to administrators over faculty presents an environment that subjugates students to the will of an academic oligarchy.
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4 comments:
Yes. Tenure is what allows me to play with tools and experiment with classes and not get too neurotic about every little thing turning into a publication year after year. Not that productivity isn't important -- it is -- but if you were working in this job for an at will employer any sort of long-term project (without clear immediate gains/output) or experimentation would simply not be worth the risk.
Didn't know how to get a hold of you but wanted to show you this. Let me know what you think!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4YP-hGZTuA
Hi Ben,
This post makes me think about that issue seriously.
Sharp thought!
Tenure is something every technocrat take very seriously and the correlation of that with technological advancement is quite plain.
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